Archie and I took a walk down the road and spotted that the new cafe was open, so we went in. A very nice smell of fresh croisssants and coffee greeted my nostrils, so I availed myself of one of each. They still haven’t got seats/stools, and I can’t really enjoy a coffee while standing. In fact, several people looked in, saw there were no seats, and walked across the road to the other cafe. 

JR, when she came back from the gym, took Archie out too, before the rain came.

Not a lot was done all afternoon, until it was time to go down to Elizabeth’s house for a soirée. JR and Christine really wanted to walk down with the dogs, I was going to take the car and not drink alcohol, having had plenty over the last couple of weeks… but it was pouring all afternoon, so everybody came in the car.

And what a feast we had! Several courses - including seafood, cheeses, cheese soufflés and to cap it all off - a humungous pavlova (Extra). 

Archie and Dougal had great fun together - I’ve never seen Archie play so much. They played and played and rolled around for absolutely ages. Dougal arrived in his best bib and tucker, but that soon got discarded in his energetic tussles. 

We’re enjoying ‘Litvenenko’ - a dramatisation of the poisoning (by Putin) in London of the ex KGB agent who had become a British citizen.